


Trust and Respect Is What We Do This For

by hummingrightalong



Category: The Walking Dead & Related Fandoms, The Walking Dead (Comics), The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: M/M, Misunderstandings, Relationship Problems, Rickyl, aaric - Freeform, basically I assume Aaron goes by Eric's last name, in my head they're married and it's beautiful
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-14
Updated: 2018-12-14
Packaged: 2019-09-18 06:55:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,550
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16990170
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hummingrightalong/pseuds/hummingrightalong
Summary: (In the comics everyone seems to be having relationship problems in Alexandria.)Since Rick and Daryl are already established at this point, they have a HUGE misunderstanding regarding Jessie's advances after Peter dies.





	Trust and Respect Is What We Do This For

**Author's Note:**

> I've always imagines that Eric and Aaron had time to get married before or during the apocalypse. It's beautiful and perfect. And I'll never get over how much of a suck Aaron is for the men he loves. Big adorable baby.

Daryl arrives at Aaron and Eric’s home, just across the street. The children are packed up like they’re about to travel halfway around the world. Their daddy has a bucket full of cleaned mushrooms in hand, Eric had mentioned Aaron didn’t think the spaghetti was mean enough without them and he had the manners to know you never show up as a guest empty handed.

“What’s all this about?” Eric asks under the porch light. He takes in the scene. Let’s just say news travels fast around here, and he and his husband are always up on the latest- being Deanna’s right hand men and some of the first members of the community. But to be polite, he’ll give their newer arrival time to explain. In a moment, anyhow, somehow already knowing what Daryl was going to say.

“Not in front of the kids. It’s almost dinner. I brought something to help out...hoped you wouldn’t mind giving them a hot meal.”

“You’re in luck. We were just fixing dinner and there’s a spare room for all of you.” The recruiter says even more gently. Like it was expected, he’s got a damn good idea what’s happened. The details will come naturally but until then, he smiles gently and ushers hem inside, a comforting hand on Carl’s shoulder and Daryl’s back. He’s pleased to note that Daryl doesn’t flinch, that he’s trusted. 

Aaron however, ever the over-protective and quite fond of Daryl the moment they met, barely waits. Hand on the tracker’s shoulder he says matter-of-factly “what the hell did he do?”

“Can it wait?” Aaron nods, takes Judith as the older man passes her off. He looks...tired. Weary. Aaron sees red but keeps it together with a single look from his husband.

Spaghetti is on the menu, to Judith’s delight. Even with three men adoringly trying to keep her tidy while they take turns treating her to bites of it. She spits out the mushrooms, slurps the noodles one at a time- a bit like her daddy minus the half belly of wine he’s already got. 

“That’s adorable. She’s used spaghetti for hair.” Eric crinkles his nose, teasing the little girl. “What did you do that for? You have such beautiful hair honey.”

Judith just laughs. Carl rolls his eyes.

“Is Daddy coming?”

“Of course not.” Daryl replies a little too harshly. “Not after what he’s done.”

With that his friends decide it’s time to make a good excuse to get the kids out of the room. At first Aaron wants to be alone with the other man to talk, but his husband sees the danger of the blond getting one sided with this. 

“No babe, why don’t you get that baby girl in the bath. And Carl, I’m sure you’ve got homework.”

“Daddy usually helps…” he looks to Daryl, actually meaning him. Sheriff Rick had been awfully busy lately and, well, Daryl sometimes seems like the smarter of the two anyhow. Eric suspects there’s no conscious intention to it, but Daryl takes a lot of the responsibility for the little things inside the community now, despite his resistance to the idea at first. It’s for the kids he knows. And if Rick knew he was getting lost in this new mission of his, keeping Alexandria together, he’d already be at their door.

“Get on. Let Aaron help. You heard me.” Daryl waits for the kids to get up the stairs with one of his new best friends (who’d have thought) and begins explaining. “Ever since we got here it’s one thing after another. I understood until today. I was going to be patient. But when he went to sleep on the couch, after we let Jessie and her boys stay...to make up for Pete I guess- though I can’t say I’m sorry he’s gone. Bastard.”

Eric tries not to show his surprise when the tracker gets down to business, saying more words than he’s probably said his entire time at Alexandria in one go. Luckily, he recovers quickly, was half expecting her to pull some shit like this and sure doesn’t approve. “Still doesn’t mean she needed to make a move on your man huh?” Eric replies. Daryl would ask how he knew but that was sort of his way.

“Yeah. And I’d love to see him here, hat in hand, explaining how she ended up straddling him, licking his damn tonsils with his hands on her hips.”

***

Rick hears the door slam.

He pushes Jessie off of him, none too gently, holding back his annoyance and panic. The ‘crazy eyes’ as his friends like to put it. He explains for the tenth time that...he and Daryl ‘were a thing’ and maybe he wasn’t clear enough because (maybe in her loneliness, or an effort to provide wholeness for her family that had been so troubled) she whispered that Daryl couldn’t offer the things she could. “He darn well can, Jessie.”

“Rick, now I can understand how a man could get desperate out there,” she says, sitting up and making a move towards him again.

“And I think we both better part ways. I got some explaining to do and you should go see that your sons are sleeping well. Now please leave.”

***

“Daryl!” Rick calls, ringing the the Raleigh’s bell once.

“Fuck off!” His boyfriend calls from an upstairs window, no doubt getting the children to bed. There’s a cigarette tucked behind his ear that he’s no doubt dying to smoke but would never light where the kids couldn’t avoid breathing it.

Rick starts to explain when Aaron appears in the doorway. He’s should be at least a little ashamed to admit he’d raced Eric, taking the bannister over the stairs to beat him to it. “I don’t think he wants to see you.”

“It’s- it’s not what it looked like. I swear.” Rick ignores their friend and calls up for the tracker to hear. 

“Yeah, that’s what the guilty ones always say.” Merle had been on the wrong end of this conversation. *Damn crybaby* Daryl thinks, even as he’s looking away to wipe at his own eyes, somehow even more furious at Rick than he had been before he felt that familiar sting...but fuck that, and Daryl knows the script (thank you big brother). “Next will be… I mean it, baby, I only have eyes for you. There, I can give you all the lines and then you can leave.” 

Aaron looks smug. Eric gets it-”straight” guys suck...Fortunately for Rick, he appears at the door, his savior suspecting there’s more than meets the eye here, and shoos the bigger man back inside. “The bathroom is soaked, darling. I think you got just as much of that bath as that little sweetheart did.” When the large blond is gone, huffing a bit but not disobeying - he’s such a sucker. Perfect man, his partner thinks. “Now...tell me what happened and *maybe* a space on the couch will open up for ya. That ought to give you enough time to explain this mess to him.”

“I swear. She jumped me. I have no interest in that woman other than protecting her from that bastard and helping make those boys feel safe.”

“Now, Rick, I hate to get in another man’s business- but maybe you ought to look for the smaller picture once in a while hero. It’s sweet you wanna help, and I think I kinda believe you- those honest eyes of yours,” Eric can practically feel Aaron seething/gloating - interesting choice, dear - and he’s sure the blond isn’t far away and certainly listening in. 

“I didn’t do anything but tell her she had the wrong idea. You gotta believe me, baby…” The term of endearment isn’t used often, especially not in mixed company but it slips. The sheriff says half to himself and half hoping Daryl can hear. He gets it though, he’s been so busy trying to make this perfect he may have left his family behind some. He may have made Daryl feel like he not just didn’t *appreciate* him but didn’t *love* him so much it ached. He babbles, starts saying all that and more. 

After a few moments he apologizes for taking up so much of the couple’s time and bringing his problems to their home. The door creaks open. “Hinges need oiling…” Daryl mutters, inspecting the works of the front door before he turns to Rick. “Come in idiot. But like Eric said, couch tonight. We’ll talk in the morning.”

“Thank you. I love you.”

“I know...I love you too moron.”

***

Daryl lets him in bed the following night, and as they’re curled up together- naked for the closeness like Daryl often insists, he throws Rick an unexpected curveball, “next time, be a little less polite to the skank, officer friendly. 

Rick sighs. “You saw all that?” His boyfriend just glares at him in the dim light. The Raleighs have a string of tiny white bulbs tacked to the ceiling, framing the bed in a...kind of romantic way. “And you didn't say....of course you didn't.”

Daryl looks at him like he can't imagine he's survived this long being so dumb, with just the hint of amusement that comes with knowing someone too damn long.

**Author's Note:**

> Nothing against the character Jessie, I really like her. She's a good strong woman. Got bit by a weird plot bunny today after falling asleep reading her & Rick in the comics last night.


End file.
